Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...The play, more successful than "Do the Hustle," which Neveu premiered last year and which looked at the various dependencies of creativity as a kind of shell game, doesn't only put you in mind of the young artist among the sharks of Hollywood, which Chicago playwrights have enjoyed dissecting for decades. "Megacosm" ("Microcosm," we're told, would never sell) also brings to your head the late Steve Jobs and his famous ability not necessarily for having great ideas but improving on the ideas of others, even if a good portion of that improvement had to do with superior marketing. And you get the sense throughout that Neveu is poking fun at himself as his Chris stares out lovingly at his little people in a box, trying to convince anyone and everyone that they are the bee's knees, can tell any story you want, and generally are more real than reality itself."
Chicago Sun Times - Recommended
"...Attention all adolescent boys ages 10 through 60 or so, especially those with a passion for ultra-sophisticated video games and doomsday sci-fi scenarios: Has A Red Orchid Theatre got a play for YOU. (Others might enjoy it, too, but you’ve got the edge.)"
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Brett Neveu's new farce does a fine, crazed, funny job of telling that joke. Chris is an inventor who's come up with something astonishing. He takes it to Britt, who develops and markets astonishing inventions. Trouble is, some of Britt's previous astonishments have wreaked so much havoc that his corporate headquarters is under violent siege from all sides. Chris's sit-down with Britt turns into something out of Jurassic Park—assuming the park were run by General Jack Ripper from Dr. Strangelove. Director Dado and her cast are astonishments in themselves."
Centerstage - Highly Recommended
"...Brett Neveu’s latest creation, “Megacosm,” is every bit as hilarious and disturbing as you’d expect. Back from LA for a brief interlude, Neveu lovingly dishes up a black comedy soaked in existential terror. The message is abundantly clear: the relentless corporate greed now ruling the roost is overthrowing every last vestige of freedom we have. Should we be concerned about the evil plots cooked up by corporate America’s despots behind closed doors? Hell to the yes, Neveu warns us."
Chicago Stage Review - Highly Recommended
"...There is room for the script to go deeper than sci-fi farce, to take these concepts past the sophisticated whimsy. It is there in the performance and there in the direction, which extract as much profundity and fun from the script as can be found. As it stands, this eighty-minute joyride is deviously clever and an extraordinary of example of how black box theater can explode your thinking beyond the confines of conventional contemplation."
Time Out Chicago - Recommended
"...Neveu shows off a giddy facility with Orwellian doublespeak; Chris’s description of his creation as “what the Hindis call zindagi” becomes a meaningless mantra, while Britt blithely rattles off a product’s potential side effects that include “lung needles” and “cranial spotting.” Grimm and especially McCarthy ace the playwright’s verbal acrobatics, with David Steiger and Eden Strong providing able support as corporate minions who add to the mystery. Neveu’s plot deflates in the final third; questions raised about corporate greed, creative control and bioethics are left hanging while convoluted threads are perfunctorily tied up. The world he’s created is an entertaining one, but he needs to find a better way to end it."
Chicago Theatre Addict - Somewhat Recommended
"...The audience seemed to enjoy themselves on opening night, but I think Neveu could take this featherweight piece even further. Or, as they’d say in corporate America, the product needs more R&D time."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...Terror, chaos and violence rule this intense and unsettling work. Director Dado has staged Neveu’s world with emotionally explosive characters struggling to control a world gone haywire with mass-produced creatures. The power situations, strongly performed make Megacosm a hilarious yet alarming evening of theatre. The sheer strength of live theatre magnifies Neveu’s script ten-fold."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Somewhat Recommended
"... Neveu vividly imagines a screwball dystopia full of hair-brained, half-baked sci-fi schemes that we’re meant to swallow completely for the sake of a rather conventional populist insurrection a la “Soylent Green” or “Planet of the Apes.” Ultimately, despite Dado’s pile-driving production, kinetic performances from a juiced-up quartet, flashing lights and offstage explosions, and a few intriguing plot twists, “Megacosm” succumbs to its own cynicism. Whichever side wins in this messed-up future, humanity—whatever that means in this world—loses."
Chicago Theater Beat - Highly Recommended
"...The story, the direction, the acting, the designs are all elements that combine for a fantastic formation. What is Megacosm? It’s indescribable. You need to see it, to believe it!"
